Tom Hiddleston will meet King Kong on Skull Island

by Matt Singer

One of the big surprises at San Diego Comic-Con this year was the announcement of a new King Kong movie from Legendary Pictures. Titled Skull Island, the film, which is due in theaters on November 4, 2016, would focus more on Kong’s home turf than previous franchise iterations, which tend to follow the beast as he’s captured and brought to New York City, where he gets way too possessive about keeping the Empire State Building observation deck all to himself. Learn to share, Kong! C’mon bro, don’t be a dick.

The initial announcement contained just the title, the release date, and the bare bones of a plot. Today, Legendary announced, via press release, two of the major creative forces behind the project: Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and star Tom Hiddleston. Here’s the updated plot synopsis:

“Legendary announced its plans to make a feature film based on the cinematic origins of King Kong during this year’s San Diego Comic Con with an original draft of the script by Max Borenstein. Previous works have touched on the island, but staying on and exploring this mysterious and dangerous place offers Legendary the opportunity to take audiences deeper inside this rich world with a style and scope that parallels other Legendary productions. Universal Pictures will distribute the film on November 4, 2016.”

Skull Island is being described by some as an “origin” story, so perhaps Hiddleston will play an actual king named Arthur P. Kong who gets bitten by a radioactive gorilla and transformed into an enormous ape. Or maybe he plays an explorer who finds Kong and runs away from him for 100 minutes. Okay, fine, it’s probably the latter. But a man can dream, can’t he?

Vogt-Roberts previously directed the well-received indie The Kings Of Summer starring Nick Offerman, and while he’s also attached to the big-screen adaptation of the Metal Gear Solid videogame, Skull Island will represent an enormous step up for him as the filmmaker, at least as far as budgets and effects go. Hiddleston, of course, is no stranger to effects work, having played Marvel baddie Loki in two Thors and an Avengers. Wait, maybe he’s playing the trickster god again, and he’s the one who transforms Chester A. Kong into King Kong. (As you can no doubt tell by now, I am totally obsessed with the idea of a big ape having an “origin” story.)